The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, the first police unit
in the UK to tackle organised computer crime, is under increased
scrutiny as it approaches its third birthday in April.
Over the past three years, it has grown dramatically and
overseen a huge expansion in the capability of local police forces
to deal with computer crime. At the same time, computer crime has
mushroomed. Devastating computer viruses, phishing attacks and
extortion now feature regularly in the pages of daily newspapers.
Yet many companies are still unwilling to report attacks for fear
that a lack of police resources will make the exercise
pointless.
Ask detective chief superintendant Len Hynds, who heads the
unit, what his most important achievements have been over the past
three years and you might expect him to launch into tales of dawn
raids, officers tracking down hackers over the internet, and
disruption operations against criminal gangs. But Hynds’ mind turns
to more down-to-earth matters.
"Three years ago we were in a situation where there was a lack
of intelligence about the scale of the problem. We did not even
have premises. Here we are in year three with a staff of 57. We
have people from police, customs, the military and intelligence
agencies. We have the training profiles in place and we have
identified the core skills."
Hacker arrests
Of course, the unit has been responsible for spectacular
successes. They include the arrest of 31-year-old Gary Mckinnon in
2001, who is facing charges for breaking into networks belonging to
Nasa, the US Navy and the US Army. It was also behind the
prosecution of an organised gang that was using the internet to
steal identities from elderly people to defraud banks and lenders
out of more than £10m.
Detectives made arrests in Durham last year after a joint
investigation into the international hacking group behind the TK
worm which caused an estimated £5.5m of damage.
The unit began life with £25m in ring-fenced funding to tackle
computer crime. Today it has to fight for its share of funding -
currently £8.3m a year - from its parent organisation the National
Crime Squad. About £3m of this goes to regional police forces to
pay for salaries, training, and basic equipment for forensic and
network investigators. The rest supports the work of the central
unit in gathering intelligence about organised crime and mounting
operations.
The work of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit reflects the
priorities of the National Crime Squad. It now focuses on five
areas: fraud and extortion, online child abuse, class A drug
trafficking over the internet, and computer crimes such as hacking
and virus writing.
Extortion by computer crime groups is one of the items at the
top of Hynds’ agenda, following a wave of threats against online
casinos and traditional businesses.
"We have identified that there are significant computer crime
groups engaged in extortion that randomly target companies, some of
which are in the UK. We have had some significant successes against
those groups, identifying the money laundering networks engaged in
this activity."
International collaboration
The work has been made possible through links between the
Hi-Tech Crime Unit and police forces in the former Eastern Bloc and
parts of the Far East. The unit has used Foreign Office funds to
train overseas police in forensic techniques and to kit them out
with specialist equipment.
"By putting down those foundations 18 months ago we have
developed relationships that are really paying dividends," said
Hynds. "We have examples of companies contacting us, saying, ‘We
are losing significant amounts of money every minute we are
talking, please help.’ And within hours we have formulated a
strategy, working alongside our overseas counterparts, and as a
result effected arrests."
The unit is currently investigating the wave of phishing attacks
against UK banks. Forty cases were reported last year, and seven
have been reported so far this year. Intelligence points to
organised criminal gangs in Eastern Europe.
"We are seeing links between different types of high-tech crime,
extortion and fraud. Some of the groups we are focusing on are
practicing a number of methodologies," said Hynds.
Securing the budgets to fight this rising tide of crime has
always been tough. The unit only secured half the funds it thought
it needed when it was formed three years ago, after failing to
prove to the government that computer crime was a serious enough
problem. Then, as now, the unit found it difficult to persuade
businesses to report computer crime.
Hynds has some sympathy with those businesses that do not report
computer crime because they feel the chances of it being
investigated are slim.
"If you look at high-tech crime across the board, that is a
reasonable comment. Here in the unit we have financial resources
and we are committed to focusing them against organised crime. If
we can identify a link to an organised crime group, we will commit
resources from the unit and we will also secure resources from
counterparts in foreign jurisdictions."
Privately, detectives working in some local forces say they are
frustrated that the high priority given to investigations into
online child pornography means that investigations into hacking and
computer crime are being put on the back burner. The Hi-Tech Crime
Unit caps its budget for paedophile investigations at 25%.
"It is important that we recognise that as significant and
abhorrent as that particular crime is, we need to tackle a whole
range of criminal activity," said Hynds.
Gathering evidence
Hynds said he has made great strides in gathering hard evidence
on the extent of high-tech crime. The introduction of a
confidentiality charter in 2002, which protects the identities of
companies that report computer crimes or share intelligence, has
given businesses more confidence to approach the unit. The charter
has attracted 3,500 enquiries.
But there is still a long way to go. One of the unit’s coups has
been to persuade every chief constable in the UK to sign a protocol
agreeing to develop crime reporting systems that will allow
high-tech components of crimes to be recorded.
The unit has also developed training programmes that could allow
all future police recruits to be given training in the basics of
computer crime.
"I do not have any authority over the speed at which that moves.
All I can do is raise the awareness of it. One of the issues for me
is keeping high-tech crime on the radar," said Hynds.
Hynds is encouraging the Home Office to make high-tech crime a
standard performance indicator for police forces. Without it, he
said, chief constables are not going to take computer crime as
seriously as they should.
"There is a performance culture in law enforcement. You can only
expect those chief constables to be really alive to the issues when
they know they are going to be judged against them," he said. "I am
confident that it will happen. I have had some good support from
the Home Office. But it is a slow process in terms of winning over
the hearts and minds of chief police officers."
The future of high-tech policing
The government’s review of policing strategy could mean some
major changes for the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit. One of the ideas
under consideration is a merger between the Hi-Tech Crime Unit, the
National Crime Squad and other law enforcement agencies to form a
national police unit.
The way the unit and local police forces interact is also likely
to be simplified, making it clearer which work will fall in to the
remit of the national unit and which will be handled by local
forces.
Hynds is confident that the changes will mean more funding for
fighting high-tech crime. Plans are at an early stage, but he is
looking to create satellite offices in the Midlands and the North
of England to complement the London office.